Brighter Things Than Diamonds
by The Mysterious Blind Bandit
Summary: "Spring is a time for new beginnings" - Crystal Tokyo-era Happy Outers Family fluff, guest starring Rei.


Promptfic for the Tumblr HaruMichi Circle Same Prompt Fic Party - March edition.  
Prompt: Spring is a time for new beginnings

* * *

The Gates were dull more than anything this time around. Pluto sat on what passed for a floor there, almost lazily leaning against the cool surface of the great door, and pondered just how much she could use a decent cup of tea. If there even was any left in the world – it was all very unclear, even to her. She'd have to make sure of a great many things, once the last of the ice finally receded. But first…

Her lips quirked up in a smile, and she got to her feet. It was finally time.

"Setsuna-mama!"

The next thing she knew, a small familiar form had enthusiastically propelled itself at her at dangerous speeds, and she was stuck staggering back against the Gates with an armful of Hotaru. Hotaru, who'd been asleep and frozen with everyone else, and had thus not really felt the passage of time – Hotaru who was obviously well aware that that was far from the case for Pluto. Small but thoughtful and caring acts were often the norm for Hotaru, and even while mostly focused on just how much she'd missed them, and her, Pluto couldn't help but feel very proud.

"Time to go home, hm?" she asked, for no particular reason other than that she liked hearing the answer spoken aloud – words always felt more real that way. She let her transformation fade and simply stood enjoying the hug and gently ruffling her daughter's hair, as they waited for the two remaining members of their family to reach them at the far more leisurely pace they'd opted for.

—

Their house appeared to be mostly intact, which was a welcome relief to Michiru, as all of them had far too much work to do helping to establish a kingdom to have time for house hunting.

"Michiru-mama, Haruka-papa!" Hotaru was at the doorway to their bedroom, calling them over, and from the look on her face it was hardly good news she was about to deliver. Haruka beat her to the end of the hallway, and her rather dramatically negative reaction only served to confirm Michiru's suspicions.

_Thankfully intact – spoken all too soon_, Michiru felt like cursing herself as she took in the sight. The biggest exception to the state of their home was a moderately-sized patch where the weight of the piled-up ice had caused damage to the roof, very conveniently located right above the sad remains of her and Haruka's bed. An appropriately timed breeze blew in a few stray snowflakes.

"Oh dear."

"Oh dear? Michiru, that was _our bed_!"

"There's really nothing to be done for it right now," Michiru sighed. "But honestly, there's no need for dramatics. We have plenty of available space, and beds to spare." Fixing anything would indeed have to wait, and in the meantime she supposed the two of them could relocate to one of the many quite decently furnished guest rooms the house had on offer.

"But all the other beds are so small," Haruka whined quietly, dejectedly pulling on a torn corner of their bedspread.

"Well then," Michiru leaned over to murmur into her ear, voice low but armed with a definite undercurrent, "I suppose I'll just have to keep you extra close and hold you very tightly, if we are to fit in one." Haruka's face was already turning promisingly pink. "I hope this isn't too disagreeable to you?" Michiru added with a small, worried frown, drinking in the stream of quickly stammered _no no no, of course not_s that followed her words almost immediately. Then she put a stop to them with a quick kiss.

—

There was an unspoken agreement between the two teams in effect. They'd all, Inner and Outer senshi alike, turned their attentions inward, dealing with things more mundane but no less important than eldritch horrors invading from another dimension. Exploding destabilised gas mains and houses set on fire were one such affair - an ugly one, but one that needed to be dealt with just the same, and one in which they were uniquely positioned to assist.

Mercury and Neptune, with their respective elemental affinities, were particularly invaluable assets in this. By combining their powers they'd managed to get the spread of the flames under control in an impressively short time. The others had succeeded in evacuating the large apartment building in the meantime – or so they thought, until a small, shrill cry for help reached their ears. Pluto was the first to react.

"Neptune, cover me."

"Pluto, what are you-" but she was already gone, disappeared into the burning building. Neptune ran to catch up with her a moment later, fighting off the flames around them with brine. Uranus immediately made to go in after them as well, but was stopped by a stern word from Venus. Of course she agreed, on a rational level, that it didn't make sense to endanger anyone else, but still…

Thankfully, the two weren't long in returning. They seemed none the worse for wear, save for a few extra soot marks added to an already impressive collection. Pluto had put away her staff, and was carrying a young boy in her arms. Neptune dismissed what was left of the water hovering around all three of them as they made their way to where Mercury was treating the more unfortunate victims of the night's calamity.

"I think he might have inhaled some smoke, but nothing worse than that, thankfully. I'll take him to your mother before we go home, just to make sure."

Mercury agreed with Pluto after giving the boy a quick once-over, then went back to her work.

—

"You know, Setsuna," Michiru began slowly during their drive home later that night, looking at her housemate in the rear-view mirror, "when you said _before we go home_, I didn't think he would be included."

Setsuna looked down at the child asleep in the seat between her and Hotaru, adjusted his seatbelt, and didn't say anything.

—

Fumio, as the boy informed them was his name, settled in admirably, and Hotaru seemed thrilled to have a younger brother to take care of and play with.

The two of them were sitting on the living room floor engrossed in a made-up game of cards, when the front door banged open rather loudly. Haruka rushed into the room and deposited a girl no older than five next to them. Upon a bit of consideration, she grabbed up a few cards from the pile on the floor, and gave them to the girl to hold, patting her on the head approvingly.

"Haruka, you can't pick up children like you do stray cats," Michiru was following on Haruka's heels, protesting, though her heart was obviously not fully in it. "We're supposed to be royal guardians and, in times of crisis, deadly soldiers. Not managers of an orphanage."

"It's just for a bit," Haruka argued back, "just until Dumpling gets things sorted out and we can find them a more permanent home – they have nowhere else to go."

Hotaru knew by now her Michiru-mama could never say no to that face for very long, and so started to explain the rules of the game to its newest player.

—

When the cry of "I couldn't do anything, Michiru-mama, they followed me here!" jolted her from her first serious attempt at painting since the Freeze, it took Michiru all of two seconds to be on her feet and transformed, ready to destroy whoever dared to threaten her daughter and her home in such an insolent manner.

To say the truth of the situation was different from what she'd been expecting was a dramatic understatement.

"Twins?" she managed, letting her transformation drop, looking at the two children flanking Hotaru.

Hotaru nodded, an adorably determined look on her face. "We can't separate them."

Michiru gave up immediately. "Of course not."

—

It was raining heavily – the first rain since the thawing of the world. While many were out celebrating and revelling in it as a miracle, a sign of the atmosphere starting to stabilise and a source of hope for normalcy, Neptune found herself wishing it had happened on a night other than her designated patrol slot. Perhaps it could have happened during Uranus'. But far be it from the universe to offer her such blessings.

She was passing through a darkened alleyway when something made her stop in her tracks, and she whirled to face her attacker with a Deep Submerge already half-summoned. But she quickly realised what it was, and stopped, dismissing the steadily glowing seawater. Her mysterious assailant was in fact a small hand belonging to an equally small child, clutching at the tail of her back bow with surprising strength.

She was going to take the child first to a hospital, she really was, and then to whichever relevant authorities she could find, but then she looked down, and was lost.

The tiny thing was soaked and shivering, looking up at her with pleading green eyes shadowed by tousled dirty blonde bangs. Haruka and Setsuna suddenly didn't seem like such soft-hearted fools anymore. Neptune crouched down to face the child, making a concentrated effort to appear less intimidating.

"Hello."

"Hi," a tiny voice peeped back, suddenly bashful.

"What's your name?"

"Himiko."

"Himiko," Neptune tried a kindly smile, "where are your parents? Are you lost?"

Himiko shook her head and rushed forward, burrowing her face in Neptune's front bow, clutching onto her for dear life and making tight little fists in the collar of her fuku.

"Would you…" Neptune faltered, "would you like to come with me?"

She felt more than saw the nod, picked up the child, and made for home.

—

The first time it happened she almost dropped the tea tray she was carrying.

"Michiru-mama?" It wasn't Hotaru calling her.

_Oh no._ Was definitely her first thought. But the next one was drowned out by a nigh-unparalleled burst of warmth.

—

The doorbell rang. Another first.

Michiru got up to answer, only to be met with Rei, and a little girl of about elementary school age. The child seemed distraught, refusing to lift up her eyes, both her hands securely gripping Rei's left.

"Minako told me this would be the place to bring her," Rei supplied in place of a greeting. "Here, Mii, go on, say hi, don't be scared of the lady."

"We're not running a childcare service, Rei."

"Really?" Rei offered drily as she looked around, craning her head slightly. "Could have fooled me."

In evidence were Setsuna feeding two amazingly cooperative toddlers in high chairs, Haruka occupying the entirety of the living room floor with her attempts at jury-rigging something out of three leftover gaming consoles and four TV screens, and Hotaru, seated at the piano, entertaining the kids whose music lesson the doorbell had interrupted.

"Look, I have no clue where Minako got the idea, but Mii has nowhere left to go. She's a good kid, I can promise you she won't be any trouble at all – she was a regular at the shrine, her mother would leave her to play. With me." Rei sounded almost wistful and there was an uncharacteristically gentle smile on her lips, twisting even sadder as she continued, "I'd gladly have her stay with me, but I can't leave her alone at the shrine. If… if Grandpa were still here, he'd-"

"You can't find her mother?" Michiru cut in quickly, before Rei's thoughts could go further down unpleasant paths.

Rei's expression darkened, however. "I found her mother yesterday. She was at Yokohama."

Images of the disaster zone they'd finally finished cleaning up so very recently flitted through Michiru's mind, along with a very unpleasant understanding of what Rei was talking about. They'd lost so very many there.

"Hello, Mii," Michiru turned her attention to the girl, instead, with as bright and honest a smile as she could manage, "I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance. Now tell me. Do you like music?"

Mii nodded shyly, still clinging to Rei's hand, but meeting Michiru's gaze head on for the first time – progress that Michiru found brought her a surprising amount of joy. "Well then, how would you like to learn how to play piano, like your big sister Rei?"

Before Rei even got a chance to question her new title, Mii dashed away from her, past Michiru, and straight to Hotaru's side, immediately intensely focused on the black and white keys currently being plonked somewhat unmelodically.

"Well, you seem to have things well in hand," Rei seemed slightly stunned by the speed of the developments. "Um, here's the backpack with her things. There isn't much in it-"

"Not a problem, as you well know, Rei."

"I didn't think it would be. I guess I should be going," Rei sounded somewhat reluctant as she leaned into the house to call out. "Bye, Mii!"

"No!" Mii cried out, almost angrily, and rushed back to the door, reclaiming possession of Rei's hand and yanking on it with surprising strength. "You can't leave yet, Big Sis Rei! You have to play a song for me first. And then you have to promise to come see me tomorrow."

"I'll come visit you, Mii, I promise I will. Every day, if you want."

"Promise promise?"

"I've known your big sister for a while now, Mii," Michiru supplied smoothly, "She's a woman of her word, I can guarantee that."

"You are enjoying encouraging her a little too much, aren't you?" Rei muttered. Michiru's only reply was a smile and a slightly raised eyebrow. Rei sighed, and went to sit down at the piano.

It was hours until she finally left for the night.

—

The three of them watched from the room's doorway as Hotaru sat surrounded by what had become an entire pack of loyal followers, reading to them from one of the picture books she'd scavenged. Little Sora, the most recent and youngest addition, was dozing in her lap, but the others were listening with rapt attention.

"It's spring," Michiru tentatively began, keeping her voice quiet so as not to disturb the little audience, "some of these children should be starting school…"

"I'll take care of it," Setsuna answered without a trace of hesitation.

"Didn't it ever bother you, even slightly, that we were barely more than kids ourselves when we took Hotaru in?" Haruka asked. It was obviously something that had been on her mind for a while.

"Well, in very many ways you'd stopped being children long before that. But it was of no matter either way," Setsuna smiled, "I was certainly not a child at the time."

Haruka smiled back.

"Still. We may have… miscalculated slightly," Michiru murmured.

"I've had a lot of time to make plenty of mistakes, and my track record may not be the best," Setsuna replied, starting to sound slightly awed, "but if this is a mistake, it is the best one I've ever made."

With that, she moved to sit down and join the children in listening to Hotaru's storytelling. Haruka and Michiru were not long in following her.


End file.
